A Guess
by Neneithel
Summary: A young Harry thinks he has worked out his real identity.


**_A Guess._**

Harry went down to the kitchen, poured a glass of milk and sat at the table with his head in his hands. Daniel folded the paper and said, "You look awful, Harry. Bad night?"

"Good and bad, and a bit terrible." said Harry.

"Bad dreams?" said Daniel and he cared, Harry could hear it in his voice. Daniel, who was really just a total stranger, cared about how he felt and his own family never had and that just made it infinitely more cruel that he had worked out what his memories meant.

"I know who I am." he said, "I figured it out."

A look of fear crossed Daniel's face. "Harry, don't do anything rash."

"What do you mean?"

"We need to discuss this rationally and you need to know that I ... "

Harry wasn't really listening. He needed to tell Daniel what he knew. He needed Daniel to assure him that it didn't mean he was as terrible as his father.

"He called her a whore, Daniel."

"Your uncle?"

"Yeah. He said things like that all the time. Maybe it was true."

"It wasn't!" said Daniel, sounding angry, "Nothing that monster said was true!"

"He called himself my uncle, but nobody would say that about their sister or their sister-in-law. There are only two reasons to call a woman a whore, she is one, or she was with him and then went off with someone else. I think she was his wife. I think I'm his son. It would explain why he kept me when he hated me and why he said all those things. It explains a lot."

"No." said Daniel.

"I mean, I get angry, just like he did."

"Harry, your anger isn't because you have that mindless thug's blood in your veins, it's because you've been hurt over and over and so you lash out, but you never yet attacked a little kid in a drunken rage."

"My mother may not be dead. She could be out there, somewhere. I just wish she'd taken me with her. We can find her, maybe, Daniel."

Daniel shook his head. "Harry, maybe the time has come ... "

"Don't send me away. Please don't! I know he was evil, maybe I am too, but if you send me away, I'll have nothing."

Daniel stood and went around the table to put his hands on Harry's shoulders. "Nobody is sending you away. There are things you don't know about your past, great gaping holes and it's natural to look for answers, but you're not his son."

"How do you know?" said Harry, wanting it to be true.

Daniel gripped his shoulders more tightly. For a long time, he didn't answer. Finally, he said, "Harry, where's the evidence? He hated your mother, if he even knew her and wasn't just making it up to hurt you. He said vile things because he was a vile man and a drunk. If you were his son, why did he try so hard to hurt you?"

Harry felt hope for the first time that morning. "Maybe I wasn't his. Maybe the other man was my father, but he didn't want me, so my mother left me with her husband."

"Don't start believing bad things of your mother." said Daniel, "Hate your father if you must, but not the one who gave you life."

"Life?" said Harry, standing up, "What bloody life? She didn't even bother to give me a name! You don't know what it's like, looking in the mirror, trying to work out what my parents look like so I'll know them if I ever see them, lying in bed all night trying to remember anything that bastard might have said that was true. Maybe she was a whore. The only thing I know is that I was nothing to her or anyone else, just something to be thrown away and forgotten."

"Don't say that!" said Daniel.

"I'm his son. I just know it."

"You're not, Harry, I know you're not, because ... "

"Swear to me you've never lied to me. Everyone else has, but I can live with that. I just need to know one person is a real friend. Swear to me, Daniel, or I might as well sod off now." He turned to look at Daniel, who looked horrified.

"You're not his son." said Daniel firmly.

"Swear that I can trust you." said Harry.

Daniel closed his eyes and nodded. "I have never and will never betray you." he said.

Harry sank back into his chair. "I don't know what to do."

Daniel went back to his own chair. "You're tired, Harry. Stay home today, get some rest."

"Home?" said Harry.

"For as long as you want it to be." said Daniel.

"Whoever and whatever I am?"

"You're Harry." said Daniel.

 _The End._


End file.
